Shopping

  • Business Leader: Boots

    Origins

    Boots harks back to an earlier time. Its first shop opened in 1849 in Nottingham. John Boot’s herbalist shop was very popular locally, and his son Jesse expanded the concept as it served a cost-conscious customer base ahead of its time.

    Present Day

    Boots logo & sample of its products – Boots.com

    Boots has a broad remit since it has invested in the science behind its brands. Its shops offer a wide variety of health, beauty, and luxury products. Its popularity with female shoppers in particular has benefited the high street with increased competition between itself and copycat retailers.

    Distinctives

    A few mergers has enlarged the concept but not changed the look or feel of the brand. Its popularity remains in personal care, celebratory gifts, and word of mouth.

  • Sexiness is a playful but also profitable exercise

    The onslaught of OnlyFans and likeminded platforms is engineered by modern concerns over looks, feelings, and love.

    In particular, the ‘stars’ of its adult-only sections are engaged in the process of making pornography because they feel the pressures, too.

    Sexiness on screen has long come to be a selling point for many consumers tired of traditional appeals to lifestyle.

    The online world of graphic paraphernalia is an exhibition of playful behaviour but also a profitable escape from curb crawling outside.

    The leading lights see that doing it keeps them at a normal level in society.

    It avoids the rejection that comes outside, or making it obvious to locals in other ways.

  • Cardinal Place, London

  • Business Leader: John Lewis & Partners

    Origins

    John Lewis & Partners began its life on the now-famous Oxford Street, in London, where it’s gained a reputation as a founding store amongst newer types. Its name was simply John Lewis, after its founder, and it sold an assortment of drapery materials.

    Present Day

    John Lewis & Partners brand images

    It’s a long time since 1864 and the business is now run as a department store enterprise. The multilevel outlets offer a range of home, personal, and outwear items. It has name brands. It has refreshments instore. It has a technology department. These are the sorts of innovations time has brought.

    Distinctives

    The changes in retail have helped John Lewis & Partners into the way of the middle class. Its choice of styles, seasonal redesigns, and marketing campaigns have drawn in a broad base of customers that are loyal and willing to pay more for a better range of quality.

  • Bookshop culture

    A walk into a bookshop is a pleasure for a large part of the shopping population. It’s more than picking up a book. It’s the delight of finding a new genre or discovering a new author. There’s so much on offer.

    A branch of Waterstones in Reading is a similar experience to many independent bookshops. It also has lots of gifts, cards, and trinkets on offer for those that want an extra treat to put into their shopping bags.

    The diversity of opinion, outlook, and thought is impressive. The number of female authors is rising too. If you thought J K Rowling hadn’t inspired writers to follow in her footsteps, you’d be proved wrong easily.

    The paperback market is an eclectic one. There are many different genres of books trending among the reading public. The kids books range is impressively broad. It takes into account a very diverse readership.

  • Town Christmas lights

    Looking at the Christmas lights is a delight and a joy for many. There are kids and adults alike who enjoy seeing them go up each year.

    It’s a community effort, and it makes sense. There’s no waste involved where there’s a need to lift spirits, and remind us of the season.

    Town pride
    Light touches

    It’s an extra ‘push’ needed to get us going at this time of the year. It’s an uplift. It’s an attractive, appealing look for a dark, and bleak, time.

    A diorama
    New shapes

    The colour, light changes, and the imagery is graphic of our ambitions to see hope and life in front of us. It’s also just a great scene for fun.

  • Christmas at Fortnum & Mason

    It gets to this time of year, and everything looks very different. The lights are out, the shops are stacked up, and people are busily enjoying the festive season.

    A trip to Fortnum & Mason is a chance to see such creativity on display. It may be in the sparkly packaging, or the unique ingredients, or even the decorations put up around the place.

    It’s worth having a look just to find out some of the innovations for this year – and to see a bit of the old magic mixed in. After all, much of Christmas has its roots in the past.

  • Bath in October

  • Onsite: Shaftesbury Avenue at night

    In walking in London at night, the usual places are lit up, but there are others much more so. It soon becomes apparent there’s a lot to do, and along Shaftesbury Avenue it has a lot to do with enjoying a night out on the town, but also as an extension of China Town just behind, finding a bit more to enjoy that’s culturally relatable.

    The accessibility of Chinese culture, predominantly, is clear as it is among the food halls and takeaway shops that line most high streets today. It’s a much stronger feeling, though, because it’s a conurbation of traditional and contemporary served up by people who know how. There’s not an amateur in sight because of its insistence on authenticity for the average patron.

    The atmosphere is the same as any other busy street, but it’s busier here because of its location and due to attractions such as theatres, cinemas, and pubs, all in spitting distance. The traffic is heavy, but there’s ample opportunity to disappear into a further street, leading off into other worlds entirely.

  • New shops? No way!

    A new shop is a cause for regret or celebration depending on your habits.

    It may be a new pair of shoes that take your fancy, a record store with vinyl floor to ceiling, or a cafe with an array of nice new cakes.

    It’s up to us what our taste is.

    In some respects it isn’t however.

    A new store like Seoul Plaza is a prime example of what it means to have a distinct shopping experience at your doorstep.

    A shot of the store inside
    People lining up to pay

    It’s a convenient store selling a wide selection of Asian foods and sweet treats. The appeal is its difference, but also its culture.

    I’m no expert on it and I may be considered a ‘fan’, but stores like this offer what’s needed in a time of social multiculturalism.

    Our politics says it, so why not also our high street.

  • The ill-repute of a salmon

    A salmon doesn’t get far these days.

    Maybe up a stream, and far away, onto someone’s plate, but those ‘air miles’ don’t count for the kind of prestige a fish might want in its native stream.

    It’s a different matter entirely when people are out on the hunt, however, and want more from life – and the life around them.

    This is where salmon lose their footing, of course.

    In recent times, the salmon at Fortnum & Mason have come under their own criticism, as well.

    Salmon fishing at Fortnum & Mason

    Far from a river, and far from their habitat, they also have an indignity levelled over their implicit quality.

    The Daily Mail reported a story recently about its fish being questioned at the store in Piccadilly, over their heritage.

    It seems odd, to bring it up like that, but people want their facts (and a decent dinner, too!), so they’ll go extra lengths find out whatever it is they need to know.

    It raises issues over everyday items that we’re used to; where they come from, and what to expect, now that the law is more aware of these things.

    This is the stuff of shopping, after all, and of normal, everyday living.

    The law can’t ignore it.

    There’s nothing to stop an average fish-loving man, partial for a bit of salmon, from asking a few questions, and making a few inquiries about it.

    It keeps our salmon the best it can be, and makes our shopping experience easier, too.